The Seattle Mariners' 2013 season closed with a thud Sunday, as the M's -- in fitting fashion -- lost 9-0 to former manager Bob Melvin and the A.L. West-champion Oakland Athletics at Safeco Field. It was Seattle manager Eric Wedge's last game after quitting last week, and it might have also been the last game for Kendrys Morales (left) and Raul Ibanez (right) in a Seattle uniform. The season-ending loss dropped the team's record to 71-91, good for fourth place in the division and 25 games out of first place.
So, how should Mariners fans feel after yet another lackluster year of Seattle baseball, especially now with turmoil in the leadership ranks? Seattlepi.com's Stephen Cohen and Nick Eaton tell you if they're optimistic or pessimistic about the M's moving forward.
Click through the gallery to see why, and weigh in on the poll below with your opinion.

Third baseman Kyle Seager (above) is perhaps the team’s best position player. The 2013 Mariners' player of the year, according to the Baseball Writers’ Association of America, continued his development by batting .263 with 22 home runs and 69 RBI, while playing solid defense on the hot corner.
Justin Smoak showed flashes of the talent that made him a first-round pick in 2008, Nick Franklin displayed good power at second base -- albeit while striking out way too much -- and Brad Miller looked like a bona fide major-league shortstop in 76 games with the club.
When you take into account the fact that the average age of the four is 24, there’s good reason to be excited about the M’s infield moving forward.

Sure, Smoak improved, and Franklin and Miller were impressive, for the most part -- but there's no doubt Seattle's once-promising young players are no longer, well, quite as promising. Why do you think the M's brought up Franklin and Miller?
Let's start with catcherfirst baseman designated hitter Jesus Montero. Remember him? He's still a Mariner, though he got demoted to Triple-A early in the season and couldn't even produce there before getting suspended for PED use. But Montero's a moot point; he might never wear an M's jersey again.
Dustin Ackley continued to prove he is not the second-rounder the Mariners thought they drafted in 2009. By the end of May, he was hitting .205 and got demoted to Tacoma. When Seattle brought him back in late June, he had a new position in center field. And Ackley, who finished the season batting .253, is clearly not a center fielder.
We'll give catcher Mike Zunino a pass; he got called up way too early after being drafted just last year. Same for pitchers Ramirez and Brandon Maurer, who now have more experience on the big-league mound yet have still struggled. And yes, we've seen promise from outfielder Abraham Almonte and the "big three" pitching prospects.
But Michael Saunders? Carlos Triunfel? Carter Capps? Hector Noesi? Are these wildly inconsistent players really the guys Mariners fans want to continue to see on the field?

Everybody knows Felix Hernandez is one of the best pitchers in the game, but this season he wasn’t even the best on his own team. Hisashi Iwakuma (above) emerged in his second major-league season, going 14-6 with a 2.66 ERA and leading the American League at 7.0 WAR. Hernandez was no slouch, either, posting a 12-10 record with a 3.04 ERA.
Sure, Joe Saunders was awful in 2013 -- especially over a 3-8 second half when he posted a 6.98 ERA -- and the Aaron Harang experiment didn’t work out, but the bevy of young options for the back half of the rotation are potentially very promising.
Erasmo Ramirez pitched fairly well down the stretch, and uber-prospect Taijuan Walker continued to work his way toward a big-league spot. The wildcard is prized prospect James Paxton, who looked downright dominant in four September starts, sporting a 3-0 record with a 1.50 ERA.

It seems the Mariners have never had a good left fielder, and the same was true in 2013. Most of the season, Ibanez (pictured) got the call, but the sheer number of gif-able gaffes he made there are more than enough evidence that Ibanez ain't the answer. Not that anyone really thinks he is -- he's 41 years old, after all, and probably won't be back in 2014.
But Seattle's outfield issues aren't limited to just left field. A whopping nine different players started in the outfield in 2013, and the lineup wasn't particularly consistent. Ibanez, Morse, Gutierrez, Ackley, Almonte, Michael Saunders, Jason Bay, Endy Chavez, Carlos Peguero -- the Mariners do not need an outfield by committee.
What's more, not one of them produced at the plate. Chavez finished with the best batting average among Mariners outfielders at .267, yet was more of a bench-warmer and utility player. Ibanez brought power in the first half of the season but his homers trailed off after the All-Star break. And Morse and Gutierrez battled injuries all season.
And now with Morse absent (traded to Baltimore), Ibanez potentially gone and Bay's release in August, the M's have even fewer options -- though that's probably a good thing. If he's back for 2014, Gutierrez will probably break his leg or something, so he's not a reliable solution at center. Saunders has potential but hasn't shown it beyond the World Baseball Classic. Chavez is an old free agent, Almonte and Peguero still belong in the minors, and Ackley ... ugh.
Seattle needs to populate its outfield with more than just leftover designated hitters and converted infielders. And if GM Jack Zduriencik thinks Ackley is his starting center fielder next season, God help us all.

Rejoice, M’s fans: Chone Figgins has finally left the building. The final $8 million of the huge salary Seattle gave him in the 2010 offseason came off the books with the close of the 2013 season, so Figgins is now gone once and for all. And with Harang's, Joe Saunders' and Franklin Guitierrez’s contracts potentially expiring, the team will have a lot more money to throw at potential free agents.
Not that it worked last year, although missing out on Josh Hamilton looks like a potential bullet dodged. But with possible free-agent targets in outfielders Jacoby Ellsbury and (former Mariner) Shin-Soo Choo, and former Cy Young winner and hometown hero Tim Lincecum (above), the Mariners could look for a big-name signing to revitalize the fanbase.
If the young talent currently on Seattle's roster develops like they could, the club won’t have nearly as much flexibility in future offseasons. A couple of well-timed signings could help turn things around.

Let's face it: No big-name free agent is ever going to maroon himself in Southeast Alaska until the Mariners turn things around. Any fans who thought the M's had a serious chance to snag Josh Hamilton, Michael Bourn, B.J. Upton or Nick Swisher last offseason were deluded.
I'd love to be proven wrong, but I expect the same pattern this offseason. Will the Mariners land Robinson Cano? No. Jacoby Ellsbury? No. Carlos Beltran? Not even him. I'm pretty skeptical this dysfunctional M's ballclub could even snag ex-Mariner Choo or former UW star Lincecum.
Not that Seattle doesn't have the money. As Stephen wrote, the M's are getting some big contracts off the books. And The Seattle Times' Geoff Baker noted Tuesday that the franchise's value has more than doubled while the team has continued to flounder. And that, my friends, may be the most frustrating part.
The M's will likely try to re-sign Kendrys Morales (pictured at right), but that could prove difficult after his relatively productive season batting .277 with 23 homers. They may also want to bring back Ibanez at age 42, especially with his veteran leadership in the clubhouse. And don't be surprised if Gutierrez gets some sort of sympathy contract after spending much of the past three seasons on the DL.

Coming into the 2013 season, the American League West looked like one of baseball’s toughest divisions to figure out.
Melvin and the defending division-champion A’s were expected by most to regress. The Texas Rangers were coming off of three-straight playoff appearances -- including trips to the World Series in 2010 and 2011 -- and were expected to be back en force. And the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim added former Rangers superstar Hamilton (above) to a lineup that already included MVP candidates Mike Trout and Albert Pujols after narrowly missing the playoffs in 2012.
So what happened? The A’s proved they were the real deal, the Rangers took a step backward, and the Angels simply imploded. As expected, the Mariners and Houston Astros did play up -- or down, rather -- to expectations.
Moving forward, the division doesn’t exactly look weak, but there are some major question marks for each of the teams. Manager Ron Washington might be out in Texas any day, the Angels are looking like they’ll regret signing Hamilton and Pujols to huge contracts, and the Astros ... well, they’re the Astros.
The Mariners certainly aren’t primed for a playoff season now, but with the right combination of offseason moves and player development, it wouldn’t be out of the realm of possibility to see them contending soon.

Do I really have to spell this one out? Eric Wedge (pictured), who managed the M's for three years, up and quit last week. He cited major philosophical differences between him and Mariners brass (read: Jack-Z). Wedge finished out the remaining three games of 2013 as a lame duck, and now the Mariners have no leadership.
Of course, they will by April 2014. But who will it be? Seattle's assistant coaches are signed through next season, so it's quite possible the M's will look internally for at least an interim manager. Bench coach Robby Thompson is a likely candidate after taking over for a month when Wedge had a stroke in July. Also possible is Rainiers manager Daren Brown, who filled in at the end of 2010 after Don Wakamatsu got the boot.
For the M's, the skipper search will clearly be the biggest story this offseason, and plenty of big names will be bandied about (I'd put $20 on Lou Piniella). But don't get your hopes up. I'm expecting to hear the following words at Zduriencik's inevitable press conference this winter: "I'm proud and excited to introduce Robby Thompson as the next manager of your Seattle Mariners."

OK, I’m willing to admit this one might be a stretch.
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think Wedge was necessarily the best solution in Seattle, but he saw enough problems here to not want to come back, even though he had the option to return next season. Wedge's choosing unemployment over a big-league manager’s job is unsettling to fans, but it doesn’t necessarily mean that getting new blood at the helm is a bad idea.
Time and time again, we’ve seen what a managerial change can do for a ballclub, especially a young one like the M’s. Kirk Gibson in Arizona, Clint Hurdle in Pittsburgh and Terry Francona in Cleveland (above) are just a few recent examples of skippers who came into a young clubhouse, helped change the culture, and led his team to playoff opportunities.
Take Francona’s Indians, for example. After losing 94 games in 2012, Cleveland hired the former Red Sox manger before the start of 2013. A few veteran free-agent signings and trades later, and a team that was picked by many to finish fourth in their own division won a Wild Card spot this season.
Is that likely to happen in the Emerald City? Maybe not. But the right managerial hire and a few deft offseason moves could put this club on the road to the playoffs.

The spotlight now falls on GM Jack Zduriencik (pictured), who apparently had philosophical differences with Wedge. We want to know: What the heck were those differences? It may be impossible to know, but we suspect Wedge was ready to push forward with his youngsters while M's brass was ready to stick to the pattern of replenishing the roster with brand new, likely aging, probably underperforming and certainly overpaid free agents. Disclaimer: That's complete and utter speculation.
But we know there were differences, and we know that means there is disagreement and uncertainty in the Mariners front office. We also know that isn't good.
Since Lou Piniella left after 2002, the Mariners have had eight managers and are about to get their ninth. And since Zduriencik took over for the hated Bill Bavasi in 2009, he's about to hire his fourth manager in six years. That ain't a good sign -- leadership consistency was a big part of the Mariners' successful stretch from 1995 through 2001.
Zduriencik's assurance that the M's wanted Wedge back for 2014 gives me hope that Jack-Z knows what he's doing. But after five years of Zduriencik, by now shouldn't we have more than just hope?
And that's when the spotlight ought to shift to the ownership. Team CEO Howard Lincoln and President Chuck Armstrong, who represent the owners, appear content to run the Mariners as a profitable business rather than a successful baseball team. For longer than a decade now, we've seen little evidence on the field that they're committed to winning. After yet another disappointing season in 2013, the calls from Mariners fans for their ouster have only gotten louder.